WORLD Magazine Week at Patrick Henry College

September 12th, 2011

Patrick Henry College is excited to present “WORLD Magazine Week” next week, September 19-23, featuring Dr. Marvin Olasky, the College’s new Professor of Journalism and the inaugural holder of the College’s Distinguished Chair in Journalism and Public Policy. Dr. Olasky will be on campus next week with his wife, Susan Olasky, holding workshops, teaching classes, and conducting a series of exclusive, recorded lunchtime interviews in the Barbara Hodel Center Coffeehouse.

Students are encouraged to attend these noon-time interviews with leading national figures (see schedule below). The Office of Campus Operations has waived the normal $1 take-out lunch fee for the noon interviews so students can participate in the interview sessions while eating lunch in the Hodel Center Coffeehouse. An approximately 30-minute Q&A session will occur after each interview, giving students an extended opportunity to question Dr. Olasky and the College’s distinguished guests.

WORLD Magazine will later publish the transcripts as Q&A articles, while the College intends to produce and post professional video and audio recordings.

“We are having some big names on campus,” said PHC Provost Dr. Gene Edward Veith. “This is a great opportunity for PHC students to get acquainted with some major players in politics, government, and the culture. Dr. Olasky's interviews with them will put the spotlight on PHC as a forum for serious thinking and discussion about the important issues of our times.”

Dr. Olasky conducts a live interview with former Senator Rick Santorum at PHC

Warren Smith, associate publisher of WORLD Magazine, added: “These interviews are a unique opportunity for students to see from beginning to end how the journalistic process works; they see the interview live and then read the final product in print in WORLD Magazine. Our partnership with PHC is important because it helps us fulfill WORLD’s mission of using Christian worldview journalism to develop the Christian worldviews of our readers and the students at PHC.”

On Monday, September 19, Dr. Olasky will conduct his first lunchtime interview (Monday start time has been changed to 12:30 p.m.) in the Hodel Center Coffeehouse with Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, and will host Representative Trent Franks (R-AZ) on Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m. Later in the week (Thursday, noon) he will interview South Dakota Senator, John Thune, at the Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Olasky’s other on-campus, lunchtime interview subjects next week include: Jay Hein, the president of the Sagamore Institute and former head of the Office of Faith Based Initiatives under President Bush (Tuesday, noon); writer Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are (Wednesday, noon); and Thomas Kidd, Associate Professor of History at Baylor University, who is currently writing a biography of Patrick Henry (Friday, noon).

These exclusive sessions will be a recurring component of Dr. Olasky’s week-long visits to campus during the school year. His next campus interview series will take place the week of November 7, featuring, among others: NY Times columnist Ross Douthat; Melinda Delahoyde, President of Care Net; and Laura Waters Hinson, producer of the documentary As We Forgive, in which victims of Rwandan genocide must find a way to live alongside former killers. A full schedule will be announced later.